Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

We are grateful that Fr. Robert Ours has been arrested on child porn charges. Now, we hope his superiors in the Syracuse Catholic diocese aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Ours' crimes and urge them to contact police and prosecutors immediately.

In cases like this, Catholic church employees and members have a simple choice. They can passively sit back, do nothing, and hope that police and prosecutors build a strong case, win a conviction, and put a dangerous cleric behind bars. Or they can actively seek out others with knowledge and suspicions that might help police and prosecutors build a strong case. We hope they will act responsibly and use their church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements to break a centuries-old culture of silence in Catholicism about clergy sex crimes.

Specifically, we urge Syracuse's bishop to personally visit every parish where Fr. Ours worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistle blowers to contact law enforcement so that kids can be protected and justice can be done.

Finally, Fr. Ours is NOT a “former” priest or an “ex” priest. A priest becomes an ex-priest when the Vatican defrocks him and not before. This has not happened. So Fr. Ours is a Syracuse diocese priest, even if he is retired.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)